Does video marketing have to cost a lot of money?

I am often asked many questions about video marketing, and I love to answer them all.

Sometimes there isn't the time, during a webinar, to provide a really in-depth answer, and one of the questions I am asked a lot is 'Does video marketing have to cost a lot of money?'.

Well, the simple answer is no.

There are many different ways to use video marketing to enhance your business' performance and reach a wider audience without providing a large upfront investment.

You can actually start making effective content for your business with something as simple as using your smartphone and some elementary equipment.

How much will video marketing cost?

Video marketing can cost however much you want it to cost; there's an incredible amount of flexibility here.

To begin with, four of the things you're going to need to produce a compelling marketing video are decent audio, a tripod, good lighting, and some form of editing software. This can all be picked up for around £400 or thereabouts.

Now, this may seem like quite a considerable amount, to begin with, especially for the smaller business owners. But the idea is that any investment you make pays off.

Create video that not only stands out but is valuable and useful to your audience.

Do this consistently, then after time, you will begin to generate inbound inquiries into your business, actual customers walking through your door.

Depending on your actual customer lifetime value, i.e., how much a customer brings to your business over the time that interacts with you, that will determine how quickly you will claim back the initial investment you make in your video kit.

 The bottom line is that any marketing for your business should not be a net cost; it should always bring in more business, and therefore more profit than the cost of the marketing activity itself.

For example, if you're running a print ad, and it costs you £300, but it only brings £200 into your business, then clearly you wouldn't be using that marketing ad again.

In the case of video marketing, the investment is for equipment needed to get you going, but then the platforms on which you post your videos will be free of charge.

So it would cost you the same amount whether you post one single video or multiple videos. Assuming that you are creating and editing the videos yourself at home.

How much do you need to invest?

So the amount of investment you want to commit to creating video content is something that you as a business owner need to consider, depending on your business, clients, and financial situation.

The other thing to take into consideration is the expectation of your client base and target audience.

If your business operates in a market where significant resources are typically invested in marketing materials, then it would make sense that perhaps you would also want to do the same in the creation and quality of your marketing videos and content.

This could mean investing in more advanced equipment or training someone in-house to produce your video marketing for you, giving you more time to concentrate on other aspects of your business.

Of course, the higher quality of your content, the more it says about your business than it would do if you were to make a rough and ready video on a smartphone.

The video content you produce represents you

Your video marketing is all part of your customer-facing marketing collateral, so the level of quality needs to go hand-in-hand with the way your business looks, feels and performs.

If you want to produce higher quality video content, even if the video is being uploaded to social media channels, then the next step up from smartphone filmmaking is to invest in a vlogging camera such as the Sony ZV1.

These cameras will produce a much better quality of imagery and sound than a smartphone.

If the idea of creating your own video content fills you with a feeling of dread and you would prefer to outsource it all to a production company, then typically, a day's shoot and editing would cost you somewhere around the £1,000 mark.

The key to maximizing the value you get from a single day's shooting requires careful planning.

An experienced production company should be able to create a number of videos from a one-day shoot, depending on the nature of the brief.

For example, suppose you want to create a series of two or three-minute videos for social media.

In that case, it is certainly not beyond the boundaries to expect anything from four to five films to be produced in a single shoot. 

This again depends on the experience of the company and the nature of the brief.

So DOES video marketing have to cost you a lot of money?

The answer: no.

But it will require an ongoing investment of time and money to ensure it is as effective as it can be.

Best of luck with your video creation!

Jeremy Mason is a video marketing expert. Connect with him on Enterprise Nation today!